Jews and Judaism in China have had a long history arrived during the mid Han Dynasty, or even as early as 231 BCE during the trade caravans and spice trade. Jewish settlers are documented in China as early as the 7th or 8th century CE, Relatively isolated communities developed through the Tang and Song Dynasties (7-12th cent. CE) all the way through the Qing Dynasty (19th cent.), most notably in the Kaifeng Jews (the term “Chinese Jews” is often used in a restricted sense to refer to these communities).

By the time of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, few if any native Chinese Jews were known to have maintained the practice of their religion and culture. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, however, some international Jewish groups have helped Chinese Jews rediscover their heritage. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish immigrants from around the world arrived with Western commercial influences, particularly in the commercial centers of Shanghai and Hong Kong, which was for a time a British colony. Tens of thousands of Jewish refugees escaping from the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Holocaust in Europe were to find sanctuary in China in successive decades.

China’s Jewish communities have been ethnically diverse ranging from the Jews of Kaifeng and other places during the history of Imperial China, who, it is reported, came to be more or less totally assimilated into Chinese culture, to 19th and 20th century Baghdadis, to Indians, to Ashkenazi Jews from Europe.

The presence of a community of Jewish immigrants in China is consistent with the history of the Jewish people during the first and second millennia CE, which saw them disperse and settle throughout the Eurasian landmass, with an especial concentration throughout central Asia. By the ninth century, ibn Khordadbeh noted the travels of Jewish merchants called Radhanites, whose trade took them to China via The Silk Road through Central Asia and India.

During the period of international opening and quasi-colonialism, the first group to settle in China were Jews who arrived in China under British protection following the First Opium War. Many of these Jews were of Indian or Iraqi origin, due to British colonialism in these regions. The second community came in the first decades of the 20th century when many Jews arrived in Hong Kong and Shanghai during those cities’ periods of economic expansion.

Many more arrived as refugees from the Russian Revolution of 1917. A surge of Jews and Jewish families was to arrive in the late 1930s and 1940s, for the purpose of seeking refuge from the Holocaust in Europe and were predominantly of European origin. Shanghai was notable for its volume of Jewish refugees, most of whom left after the war, the rest relocating prior to or immediately after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Over the centuries, the Kaifeng community came to be virtually indistinguishable from the Chinese population and is not recognized by the Chinese government as a separate ethnic minority. This is as a result of having adopted many Han Chinese customs including patrilineal descent, as well as extensive intermarriage with the local population. Since their religious practices are functionally extinct, they are not eligible for expedited immigration to Israel under the Law of Return unless they explicitly convert.

It has been asserted by some that the Jews that have historically resided in various places in China originated with the Lost Ten Tribes of the exiled ancient Kingdom of Israel who relocated to the areas of present-day China. Traces of some ancient Jewish rituals have been observed in some places. One well-known group was the Kaifeng Jews, who are purported to have traveled from Persia to India during the mid-Han Dynasty and later migrated from the Muslim-inhabited regions of northwestern China (modern day Gansu province) to Henan province during the early Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). A massacre of Jews in Canton, China occurred during the Chinese Tang Dynasty in the 9th century

It has been asserted in oral tradition that the first Jews immigrated to China through Persia following the Roman Emperor Titus’s capture of Jerusalem in 76 CE, during the Han Dynasty.Writing in 1900, Father Joseph Brucker hypothesized that Jews came to China from India by a sea route during the Song dynasty between 960 and 1126.

Three steles with inscriptions found at Kaifeng bear some historical suggestions. The oldest, dating from 1489, commemorates the construction of a synagogue (1163) (bearing the name Qīngzhēn Sì, a term often used for mosque in Chinese), states the Jews entered China from India in the Later Han Dynasty (25–220 CE), the Jews’ 70 Chinese surnames, their audience with an “un-named” Song Dynasty Emperor, and finally lists the transmission of their religion from Abraham down to the prophet Ezra. The second table, dated 1512 (found in the synagogue Xuanzhang Daojing Si) details the Jews’ religious practices. The third is dated 1663 and commemorates the re-rebuilding of the Qingzhen si synagogue and recaps the information from the other two steles.

Two of the stelae refer to a famous tattoo written on the back of Song Dynasty General Yue Fei. The tattoo, which reads jǐn zhōng bào guó (simplified Chinese: traditional Chinese: “Boundless loyalty to the country”), first appeared in a section of the 1489 stele talking about the Jews’ “Boundless loyalty to the country and Prince”. The second appeared in a section of the 1512 stele talking about how Jewish soldiers and officers in the Chinese armies were “Boundlessly loyal to the country.” One source even claims that Israelites served as soldiers in the armies of Yue Fei.

Father Joseph Brucker believed Matteo Ricci’s manuscripts indicate there were only approximately ten or twelve Jewish families in Kaifeng in the late 16–early 17th century, and that they had reportedly resided there for five or six hundred years. It was also stated in the manuscripts that there was a greater number of Jews in Hangzhou. This could be taken to suggest that loyal Jews fled south along with the soon-to-be crowned Emperor Gaozong to Hangzhou. In fact, the 1489 stele mentions how the Jews “abandoned Bianliang” (Kaifeng) after the Jingkang Incident.

Names: The contemporary term for Jews in use among Chinese today is Youtairen (Chinese:Yóutài Rén) in Mandarin Chinese. The term Youtai has similar phonetic sound of Jude or Judah, Greek terms for Jew. If translated from Chinese, youtairen literally means Jude people. They may be considered one of the Undistinguished ethnic groups in China. It has been recorded that the Chinese historically called the Jews Tiao jin jiao, loosely, “the religion which removes the sinew,” probably referring to the Jewish dietary prohibition against eating the sciatic nerve (from Genesis 32:32). Jewish dietary law would have most likely caused Jewish communities to stand out from the surrounding mainstream Chinese population, as Chinese culture is typically very free in the range of items it deems suitable for food. They have also been called the Blue-Hat Hui people (Chinese: Lánmào Húi), in contrast to other populations of Hui, who have identified with hats of other colors. The distinction between Muslim and Jewish Chinese is not, and historically has not been, well recognised by the dominant Han population.

A modern translation of the “Kaifeng Steles” has shown the Jews referred to their synagogue as “The Pure and Truth”. According to an oral tradition dictated by Prof. Xu, Xin, Director of Judaic Studies at Nanjing University, in his book Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, the Kaifeng Jews called Judaism yī cì lè yè jiào lit. the religion of Israel. Yī cì lè yè is a phonetic Chinese translation of “Israel”. Prof. Xu, Xin actually translates this phrase as “Chosen people, endowed by God, and contented with their lives and work”. Sources indicate that Jews in China were often mistaken for Muslims by other Chinese. The first plausible recorded written Chinese mention of Jews uses the term Zhu-hu, or Zhu-hu-du (perhaps from Hebrew Yehudim, “Jews”) found in the Annals of the Yuan Dynasty in 1329 and 1354. The text spoke of the reinforcement of a tax levied on “dissenters” and of a government decree that the Jews come en-masse to Beijing, the capital.

However, the earliest recorded information seems to have originated much earlier than that but from outside China. The writings of Ibn Zeyd al Hassan, a 9th century Arabian traveler, states that Jews were one of the sects massacred at Khanfu (Guangzhou) by the rebel Huang Chao. It is apparently recorded that by the 8th century, Jews had already become large enough in number that the imperial regime appointed a government position to administer or monitor the population.

Famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who visited China in the late 13th century, described the prominence of Jewish traders in Beijing. Similar references can be found in the writings of Ibn Batuta, an Arabian envoy to the Mongol Yuan regime.

The first modern Western record of Jews residing in China is found in the records of the seventeenth century Jesuit missionaries in Beijing. The prominent Jesuit Matteo Ricci received a visit from a young Jewish Chinese named Ngai in 1605, who explained that the community he belonged to was monotheistic, or believing in only one God. It is recorded that when he saw a Christian image of Mary with the child Jesus, he took it to be a picture of Rebecca with Esau or Jacob, figures from Hebrew Scripture. Ngai declared that he had come from Kaifeng, and stated that this was the site of a large Jewish population. Ricci sent an ethnic Chinese Jesuit to visit Kaifeng; later, other Jesuits (mostly European) also visited the city. It was later discovered that the Jewish community had a synagogue (Libai si), which was constructed facing the west, and housed a number of written materials and books. During the Taiping rebellion of the 1850s, the Jews of Kaifeng apparently suffered a great deal and were dispersed. Following this dislocation, they returned to Kaifeng, yet continued to be small in number and to face hardships, as is recorded in the early 20th century.

Shanghai’s first wave of Jews came in the second half of the 19th century, many being Mizrahi Jews from Iraq. The first Jew who arrived there was Elias David Sassoon, who, about the year 1850, opened a branch in connection with his father’s Bombay house. Since that period Jews have gradually migrated from India to Shanghai, most of them being engaged from Bombay as clerks by the firm of David Sassoon & Co. The community was composed mainly of “Asian,” German, and Russian Jews, though there are a few of Austrian, French, and Italian origin among them. Jews took a considerable part in developing trade in China, and several served on the municipal councils, among them being S. A. Hardoon, partner in the firm of E. D. Sassoon & Co., who had served on the French and English councils at the same time. During the early days of Jewish settlement in Shanghai the trade in opium and Bombay cotton yarn was mainly in Jewish hands.

Jacob Rosenfeld as a doctor for the New Fourth Army between Liu Shaoqi (left) and Chen Yi (right).

Contemporaneous sources estimated the Jewish population in China in 1940, including Manchukuo, at 36,000. Jewish life in Shanghai had really taken off with the arrival of the British. Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East came as traders via India and Hong Kong and established some of the leading trading companies. Later came Jewish refugees from Russia (and later the Soviet Union). After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several thousand Russian Jews (many of them anti-communists) moved to Harbin in northern China (former Manchuria), alongside Christian Russians. These included the parents of future Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

World War II Shanghai ghetto: Another wave of 18,000 Jews, from Germany, Austria, and Poland immigrated to Shanghai in the 1930s. Shanghai at the time was an open city and did not have restrictions on immigration, and some Chinese diplomats such as Ho Feng Shan issued “protective” passports. In 1943, the occupying Japanese army required these 18,000 Jews, formally known as “stateless refugees,” to relocate to a 3/4 square mile area of Shanghai’s Honkew district (today known as Hongkou) where many lived in group homes called “heime.” The total number of Jews entering Shanghai during this period equaled the number of Jews fleeing to Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa combined. Many of the Jews in China later returned to found modern Israel.

Shanghai was an important safe-haven for Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, since it was one of the few places in the world where one didn’t need a visa. However, it was not easy to get there. The Japanese, who controlled the city, preferred in effect to look the other way. Some corrupt officials however, also exploited the plight of the Jews. By 1941 nearly 20,000 European Jews had found shelter there. Notable Chinese Jews during the Second Sino-Japanese War includes doctor Jakob Rosenfeld and Morris Cohen.

Late in the War, Nazi representatives pressured the Japanese army to devise a plan to exterminate Shanghai’s Jewish population, and this pressure eventually became known to the Jewish community’s leadership. However, the Japanese had no intention of further provoking the anger of the Allies after their already notorious invasion of China and a number of other Asian nations, and thus delayed the German request until the War ended.

The relative safety of the Jews during the period, in contrast to the Japanese treatment of Chinese during the war, was linked to an appreciation of Jewish culture and history by the Japanese and to the connections that many Jews had in the United States. Nevertheless, conditions in the Designated Area were unpleasant, particularly during the summer months.

After World War II and the establishment of the PRC in 1949, most of these Jews emigrated to Israel or the West, although a few remained. Two prominent non-Chinese lived in China from the establishment of the People’s Republic of China to the contemporary period: Sidney Shapiro and Israel Epstein, two American emigres, are of Jewish descent. Another Jewish-American, Sidney Rittenberg served as interpreter to many top Chinese officials.

Sara Imas, the Shanghai-born daughter of Shanghai’s Jewish Club president, Leiwi Imas, became the first Jewish-Chinese immigrant to Israel after the two countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1992. Leiwi Imas spent his final years in Shanghai until 1962, prior to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Although Sara Imas’s non-Chinese appearance and family background brought her much trouble during the Cultural Revolution when she was accused of being a foreign capitalist and spy, today Sara Imas has returned to Shanghai, working as the Chinese representative of an Israeli diamond company.

An institute of Jewish Studies was established at Nanjing University in 1992. Since the 1990s, the Shanghai municipal government has taken the initiative to preserve historical Western architectures that were constructed during Shanghai’s colonial past. Many formerly Jewish-owned hotels and private residence have been included in the preservation project. In 1997, the Kadoorie-residence-turned Shanghai Children’s Palace, had their spacious front garden largely removed in order to make room for the city’s overpass system under construction. A One Day Tour of the history of Jewish presence in Shanghai can be arranged through the Center of Jewish Studies Shanghai or the community-based Shanghai Jewish Center.

21st Century: With the current expansion of trade and globalization, Jews of many ethnicities from multiple regions of the world have settled permanently and temporarily in China’s major cities. Synagogues are found in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong today, serving both international Jews and native Jews. In 2005, the Israeli embassy to China held their Hanukkah celebrations at the Great Wall of China. Today, some descendants of Jews still live in the Han Chinese and Hui population. Some of them, as well as international Jewish communities, are beginning to revive their interest in this heritage. This is especially important in modern China because belonging to any minority group includes a variety of benefits including reduced restrictions on the number of children and easier admission standards to tertiary education.

NOTABLE JEWS OF CHINA

Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen bodyguard of Sun Yat-Sen
Israel Epstein
Sidney Rittenberg
Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln
Zhao Yingcheng
Amir Gal-Or
Nina Brosh, model (Chinese mother)
Misha Dichter, pianist (Chinese-born)
Israel Epstein, journalist, author
Edmond Fischer, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1992) (Chinese-born; Jewish father)
Silas Aaron Hardoon, real estate tycoon
Ehud Olmert, past prime minister of Israel (parents from Harbin)
Jakob Rosenfeld, doctor and general in the Chinese Liberation Army
Sidney Shapiro, member of the People’s Political Consultative Council
Russell Alexander Goldstein Huang III, Ithaca College’s 1st Jewish/Asian.

Notable Hong Kong Jews
Ellis, Elly, Lawrence,
Dean Wiener,
Michael Kadoorie, businesspeople
Matthew Nathan, Hong Kong governor (1904)
Victor Sassoon

Yemenite Jews (Temanim, Temani, Teman – far south) are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. Yemenite Jews have a unique religious tradition that marks them out as separate from Ashkenazi, Sephardi and other Jewish clans. It is debatable whether they should be described as “Mizrahi Jews”, as most other Mizrahi groups have over the last few centuries undergone a process of total or partial assimilation to Sephardic culture and liturgy. (While the Shami sub-group of Yemenite Jews did adopt a Sephardic-influenced rite, this was for theological reasons and did not reflect a demographic or cultural shift.)

One local Yemenite Jewish tradition dates the earliest settlement of Jews in the Arabian Peninsula to the time of King Solomon. One explanation is that King Solomon sent Jewish merchant marines to Yemen to prospect for gold and silver with which to adorn the Temple in Jerusalem. Another legend places Jewish craftsmen in the region as requested by Bilqis, the Queen of Saba (Sheba). The Beta Israel or Chabashim (Jews in nearby Ethiopia) have a sister legend of their origins that places the Queen of Sheba as married to King Solomon. Parts of Yemen, Eritrea and Ethiopia at that time were jointly ruled by Sheba, with its capital in Yemen.

The Sanaite Jews have a legend that their ancestors settled in Yemen forty-two years before the destruction of the First Temple. It is said that under the prophet Jeremiah some 75,000 Jews, including priests and Levites, traveled to Yemen. The Jews of Habban in southern Yemen have a legend that they are the descendants of Judeans who settled in the area before the destruction of the Second Temple. These Judeans supposedly belonged to a brigade dispatched by King Herod to assist the Roman legions fighting in the region.

Another legend states that when Ezra commanded the Jews to return to Jerusalem they disobeyed, whereupon he pronounced a ban upon them. According to this legend, as a punishment for this hasty action Ezra was denied burial in Israel. As a result of this local tradition, which can not be validated historically, it is said that no Jew of Yemen gives the name of Ezra to a child, although all other Biblical appellatives are used. The Yemenite Jews claim that Ezra cursed them to be a poor people for not heeding his call. This seems to have come true in the eyes of some Yemenites, as Yemen is extremely poor. However, some Yemenite sages in Israel today emphatically reject this story as myth, if not outright blasphemy.

The immigration of the majority of Jews into Yemen appears to have taken place about the beginning of the second century C.E., although the province is mentioned neither by Josephus nor by the main books of the Jewish oral law, the Mishnah and Talmud. According to some sources, the Jews of Yemen enjoyed prosperity until the sixth century C.E. The Himyarite King, Abu-Karib Asad Toban converted to Judaism at the end of the 5th century, while laying siege to Medina. His army had marched north to battle the Aksumites who had been fighting for control of Yemen for a hundred years. The Aksumites were only expelled from the region when the newly Jewish king rallied the Jews together from all over Arabia, together with pagan allies. But this victory was short-lived.

In 518 the kingdom was taken over by Zar’a Yusuf, who “was of royal descent, but he was not the son of his predecessor Ma’di Karib Yafur.” He too converted to Judaism, and prosecuted wars to drive the Aksumite Ethiopians from Arabia. Zar’a Yusuf is chiefly known in history by his cognomen Dhu Nuwas, in reference to his “curly hair.” Jewish rule lasted until 525 CE (some date it later, to 530), when Christians from the Aksumite Kingdom of Ethiopia defeated and killed Dhu Nuwas, and took power in Yemen. Legends hostile to Dhu Nuwas certainly betray the viewpoints and self-justifications of those who defeated him and later Muslim historiographers (who tend to downplay the presence or positive nature of Jewish communities in Arabia immediately preceding and influencing Muhammad), and therefore need to be taken with the due grain of salt. What is clear is that the Jewish Yemenite kings did not force Judaism on their subjects, following the Talmudic view that righteous peoples exist in all cultures and religions and need not convert to Judaism to be saved. As a consequence, it is not clear what percentage of the population was or became Jewish. San’a, however, was said to be a chiefly Jewish city.

Rise of Islam in Yemen: As Ahl al-Kitab, protected Peoples of the Scriptures, the Jews were assured freedom of religion only in exchange for the jizya, payment of a poll tax imposed on all non-Muslims. Active Muslim persecution of the Jews did not gain full force until the Shiite-Zaydi clan seized power ,from the more tolerant Sunni Muslims,early in the 10th century.

As the only visible “outsiders” (though their presence in Yemen predated the introduction and mass conversion of the population to Islam) the Jews of Yemen were treated as pariahs, second-class citizens who needed to be perennially reminded of their submission or conversion to the ruling Islamic faith. The Zaydi enforced a statute known as the Orphan’s Decree, anchored in their own 18th century legal interpretations and enforced at the end of that century. It obligated the Zaydi state to take under its protection and to educate in Islamic ways any dhimmi (i.e. non-Muslim) child whose parents had died when he or she was a minor. The Orphan’s Decree was ignored during the Ottoman rule (1872-1918), but was renewed during the period of Imam Yahya (1918-1948).

Under the Zaydi rule, the Jews were considered to be impure, and therefore forbidden to touch a Muslim or a Muslim’s food. They were obligated to humble themselves before a Muslim, to walk to the left side, and greet him first. They could not build houses higher than a Muslim’s or ride a camel or horse, and when riding on a mule or a donkey, they had to sit sideways. Upon entering the Muslim quarter a Jew had to take off his foot-gear and walk barefoot. If attacked with stones or fists by Islamic youth, a Jew was not allowed to defend himself. In such situations he had the option of fleeing or seeking intervention by a merciful Muslim passerby.

The Jews of Yemen had expertise in a wide range of trades normally avoided by Zaydi Muslims. Trades such as silver-smithing, blacksmiths, repairing weapons and tools, weaving, pottery, masonry, carpentry, shoe making, and tailoring were occupations that were exclusively taken by Jews. The division of labor created a sort of covenant, based on mutual economic and social dependency, between the Zaydi Muslim population and the Jews of Yemen. The Muslims produced and supplied food, and the Jews supplied all manufactured products and services that the Yemeni farmers needed.

Yemenite Jews and Maimonides: The average Jewish population of Yemen for the first five centuries C.E. is said to have been about 3,000. The Jews were scattered throughout the country, but carried on an extensive commerce and thus succeeded in getting possession of many Jewish books. When Saladin became sultan in the last quarter of the twelfth century and the Shiite Muslims revolted against him, the trials of the Yemenite Jews began. There were few scholars among them at that time, and a putative prophet arose; he preached a syncretic religion that combined Judaism and Islam, and claimed that the Bible foretold his coming.

One of Yemen’s most respected Jewish scholars, Jacob ben Nathanael al-Fayyumi, wrote for counsel to renowned Sephardic Jewish theologian, philosopher, and physician from Spain resident in Egypt, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides. Maimonides replied in an epistle entitled Iggeret Teman (The Yemen Epistle). This letter made a tremendous impression on Yemenite Jewry. It also served as a source of strength, consolation and support for the faith in the continuing persecution. Maimonides himself interceded with Saladin in Egypt, and shortly thereafter the persecution came to an end.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the condition of the Jews of Yemen was miserable. They were under the jurisdiction of the local Muslim Imam, and they were forbidden to wear new or good clothes, nor might they ride a donkey or a mule. They were compelled to make long journeys on foot when occasion required it. They were prohibited from engaging in monetary transactions, and were all craftsmen, being employed chiefly as carpenters, masons, and smiths.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, they are said to have numbered 30,000, and to have lived principally in Aden (200), Sana (10,000), Sada (1,000), Dhamar (1,000), and the desert of Beda (2,000). Other significant Jewish communities in Yemen were based in the south central highlands in the cities of: Taiz (the birthplace of one of the most famous of Yemenite Jewish spiritual leaders, Mori Salem Al-Shabazzi Mashtaw), Ba’dan, and other cities and towns in the Shar’ab region. The chief occupations of the Yemenite Jews were as artisans, including gold-, silver- and blacksmiths in the San’a area, and coffee merchants in the south central highland areas.

19th-century Yemenite messianic movements: During this period messianic expectations were very intense among the Jews of Yemen (and among many Arabs as well). The three pseudo-messiahs of this period, and their years of activity, are: Shukr Kuhayl I (1861–65); Shukr Kuhayl II (1868–75) and Joseph Abdallah (1888–93)

According to the Jewish traveler Jacob Saphir, the majority of Yemenite Jews during his visit of 1862 entertained belief in the messianic proclamations of Shukr Kuhayl I. Earlier Yemenite messiah claimants included the anonymous 12th-century messiah who was the subject of Maimonides’ famous Iggeret Teman, the messiah of Bayhan (c.1495), and Suleiman Jamal (c.1667), in what Lenowitz regards as a unified messiah history spanning 600 years.

The Yemenite Jews are the only Jewish community (other than the Aramaic speaking Kurdish Jews) who maintain the tradition of reading the Torah in the synagogue in both Hebrew and the Aramaic Targum (“translation”). Most non-Yemenite synagogues have a hired or specified person called a Baal Koreh, who reads from the Torah scroll when congregants are called to the Torah scroll for an aliyah. In the Yemenite tradition each person called to the Torah scroll for an aliyah reads for himself. Children under the age of Bar Mitzvah are often given the sixth aliyah. Each verse of the Torah read in Hebrew is followed by the Aramaic translation, usually chanted by a child. Both the sixth aliyah and the Targum have a simplified melody, distinct from the general Torah melody used for the other aliyot.

Like most other Jewish communities, Yemenite Jews chant different melodies for Torah, Prophets (Haftara), Megillat Aicha (Book of Lamentations), Kohelet (Ecclesiastes, read during Sukkot), and Megillat Esther (the Scroll of Esther read on Purim). Unlike in Ashkenazic communities, there are melodies for Mishle (Proverbs) and Psalms. Every Yemenite Jew knew how to read from the Torah Scroll with the correct pronunciation and tune, exactly right in every detail. Each man who was called up to the Torah read his section by himself. All this was possible because children right from the start learned to read without any vowels. Their diction is much more correct than the Sephardic and Ashkenazic dialect. The results of their education are outstanding, for example if someone is speaking with his neighbor and needs to quote a verse from the Bible, he speaks it out by heart, without pause or effort, with its melody.

In larger Jewish communities, such as Sana’a and Sad’a, boys were sent to the Ma’lamed at the age of three to begin their religious learning. They attended the Ma’lamed from early dawn to sunset Sunday through Thursday and until noon on Friday. Jewish women were required to have a thorough knowledge of the laws pertaining to Kashrut and Taharat Mishpachah (family purity) i.e. Niddah. Some women even mastered the laws of Shechita, thereby acting as ritual slaughterers.

People also sat on the floors of synagogues instead of chairs, similar to the way many other non-Ashkenazi Jews sit in synagogues, and the way Yemeni Muslims sit in mosques. (In fact to this day, chairs are quite rare in Yemen) This is in accordance with what Rambam (Maimonides) wrote in his Mishneh Torah: “We are to practise respect in synagogues… and all of the People of Israel in Spain, and in the West, and in the area of Iraq, and in the Land of Israel, are accustomed to light lanterns in the synagogues, and to lay out mats on the ground, in order to sit upon them. But in the cities of Edom (portions of Europe), there they sit on chairs.” Hilchot Tefila 11:5 “..and because of this (prostration) all of Israel is accustomed to lay mats in their synagogues on the stone floors, or types of straw and hay, to separate between their faces and the stones.” Hilchot Avodah Zarah 6:7

The lack of chairs may also have been to provide more space for prostration, another ancient Jewish observance that the Jews of Yemen continued to practise until very recent times. There are still a few Yemenite Jews who prostrate themselves during the part of every-day Jewish prayer called Tachanun (Supplication), though such individuals usually do so in privacy. In the small Jewish community that exists today in Bet Harash Prostration is still done during the tachnun prayer. Jews of European origin generally prostrate only during certain portions of special prayers during Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Prostration was a common practise amongst all Jews until some point during the late Middle Ages or Renaissance period.

Like Yemenite Jewish homes, the synagogues in Yemen had to be lower in height then the lowest mosque in the area. In order to accommodate this, synagogues were built into the ground to give them more space without looking large from the outside. In some parts of Yemen, minyanim would often just meet in homes of Jews instead of the community having a separate building for a synagogue. Beauty and artwork were saved for the ritual objects in the synagogue and in the home.

Weddings and marriage traditions: During a Yemenite Jewish wedding, the bride is bedecked with jewelry and wears the traditional wedding costume of Yemenite Jews. Her elaborate headdress is decorated with flowers and rue leaves, which are believed to ward off evil. Gold threads are woven into the fabric of her clothing. Songs are sung as a central part of a seven-day wedding celebration and their lyrics often tell of friendship and love in alternating verses of Hebrew and Arabic.

Yemenite and other Eastern Jewish communities also perform a henna ceremony, an ancient ritual with Bronze Age origins, a few weeks or days before the wedding. In the ceremony the bride and her guests hands and feet are decorated in intricate designs with a cosmetic paste derived from the henna plant. After the paste has remained on the skin for up to two hours it is removed and leaves behind a deep orange stain that fades after two to three weeks.

Yemenites, like other Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities, had a special affinity for Henna due to biblical and Talmudic references. Henna, in the Bible, is Camphire, and is mentioned in the Song of Solomon, as well as in the Talmud. “My Beloved is unto me as a cluster of Camphire in the vineyards of En-Gedi” Song of Solomon, 1:14

Rashi, a Jewish scholar from 11th c France, interpreted this passage that the clusters of henna flowers were a metaphor for forgiveness and absolution, showing that God forgave those who tested Him (the Beloved) in the desert. Henna was grown as a hedgerow around vineyards to hold soil against wind erosion in Israel as it was in other countries. A henna hedge with dense thorny branches protected a vulnerable, valuable crop such as a vineyard from hungry animals. The hedge, which protected and defended the vineyard, also had clusters of fragrant flowers. This would imply a metaphor for henna of a “beloved”, who defends, shelters, and delights his lover. In the first millennium BCE, in Canaanite Israel, henna was closely associated with human sexuality and love, and the divine coupling of goddess and consort.

Religious groups: The three main groups of Yemenite Jews are the Baladi, Shami, Maimonideans or “Rambamists”

The differences between these groups largely concern the respective influence of the original Yemenite tradition, which was largely based on the works of Maimonides, and of the Kabbalistic tradition embodied in the Zohar and the school of Isaac Luria, which was increasingly influential from the 1600s on.

The Baladi Jews (from Arabic balad, country) generally follow the legal rulings of the Rambam (Maimonides) as codified in his work the Mishneh Torah. Their liturgy was developed by a rabbi known as the Maharitz (Mori Ha-Rav Yihye Tzalahh), in an attempt to break the deadlock between the pre-existing followers of Maimonides and the new followers of the mystic, Isaac Luria. It substantially follows the older Yemenite tradition, with only a few concessions to the usages of the Ari. A Baladi Jew may or may not accept the Kabbalah theologically: if he does, he regards himself as following Luria’s own advice that every Jew should follow his ancestral tradition.

The Shami Jews (from Arabic ash-Sham, the north, referring to Tzfat or Damascus) represent those who accepted the Zohar in the 1600s and modified their siddur (prayer book) to accommodate the usages of the Ari to the maximum extent. The text of their siddur largely follows the Sephardic tradition, though the pronunciation, chant and customs are still Yemenite in flavour. They generally base their legal rulings both on the Rambam (Maimonides) and on the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law). In their interpretation of Jewish law Shami Yemenite Jews were strongly influenced by Syrian Sephardi Jews, though on some issues they rejected the later European codes of Jewish law, and instead followed the earlier decisions of Maimonides. Most Yemenite Jews living today follow the Shami customs. The Shami rite was always more prevalent, even 50 years ago.

The “Rambamists” are followers of, or to some extent influenced by, the Dor Daim movement, and are strict followers of Talmudic law as compiled by Maimonides, aka “Rambam”. They are regarded as a subdivision of the Baladi Jews, and claim to preserve the Baladi tradition in its pure form. They generally reject the Zohar and Lurianic Kabbalah altogether. Many of them object to terms like “Rambamist”. In their eyes, they are simply following the most ancient preservation of Torah, which (according to their research) was recorded in the Mishneh Torah.

Dor Daim and Iqshim dispute: Towards the end of the nineteenth century new ideas began to reach Yemenite Jews from abroad. Hebrew newspapers began to arrive, and relations developed with Sephardic Jews, who came to Yemen from various Ottoman provinces to trade with the army and government officials.

Two Jewish travelers, Joseph Halévy, a French-trained Jewish Orientalist, and Edward Glaser, an Austrian-Jewish astronomer, in particular had a strong influence on a group of young Yemenite Jews, the most outstanding of whom was Rabbi Yihhyah Qafahh. As a result of his contact with Halévy and Glaser, Qafahh introduced modern content into the educational system. Qafih opened a new school and in addition to traditional subjects, introduced arithmetic, Hebrew and Arabic and the grammar of both languages. The curriculum included subjects such as natural science, history, geography, astronomy, sports, Hebrew, Arabic, and Turkish.

The Dor Daim and Iqshim dispute about the Zohar literature broke out in 1913, inflamed Sanaa’s Jewish community, and split into two rival groups, that maintained separate communal institutions until the late 1940s. Rabbi Qafahh and his friends were the leaders of a group of Maimonideans called Dor Daim (the “generation of knowledge”). Their goal was to bring Yemenite Jews back to the original Maimonidean method of understanding Judaism that existed in pre-1600s Yemen.

Similar to certain Spanish and Portuguese Jews (Western Sephardi Jews), the Dor Daim rejected the Zohar, a book of esoteric mysticism. They felt that the Kabbalah based on the Zohar was irrational, alien, and inconsistent with the true reasonable nature of Judaism. In 1913, when it seemed that Rabbi Qafahh, then headmaster of the new Jewish school and working closely with the Ottoman authorities, enjoyed sufficient political support, the Dor Daim made its views public and tried to convince the entire community to accept them. Many of the non-Dor Daim elements of the community rejected the Dor Daim concepts. The opposition, the Iqshim, headed by Rabbi Yahya Yitzhaq, the Hakham Bashi, refused to deviate from the accepted customs and the study of Zohar. One of the Iqshim’s targets in the fight against Rabbi Qafahh was the modern Turkish-Jewish school. Due to the Dor Daim and Iqshim dispute, Rabbi Qafahh’s Turkish-Jewish school closed 5 years after it was opened, before the educational system could develop a reserve of young people who had been exposed to its ideas.

Form of Hebrew: There are two main pronunciations of Yemenite Hebrew, considered by many scholars to be the most accurate form of Biblical Hebrew, although there are technically a total of five that relate to the regions of Yemen. In the Yemenite dialect, all Hebrew letters have a distinct sound, except for the letters ס sāmekh and ש śîn. The Sanaani Hebrew pronunciation (used by the majority) has been indirectly critiqued by Saadia Gaon since it contains the Hebrew letters jimmel and guf, which he rules is incorrect. There are Yemenite scholars, such as Rabbi Ratzon Arusi, who say that such a perspective is a misunderstanding of Saadia Gaon’s words.

Rabbi Mazuz postulates this hypothesis through the Jerban (Tunisia) Jewish dialect’s use of gimmel and quf, switching to jimmel and guf when talking with Gentiles in the Gentile dialect of Jerba. Some feel that the Shar’abi pronunciation of Yemen is more accurate and similar to the Babylonian dialect since they both use a gimmel and quf instead of the jimmel and guf. While Jewish boys learned Hebrew since the age of 3, it was used primarily as a liturgical and scholarly language. In daily life, Yemenite Jews spoke in regional Judeo-Arabic.

The oldest Yemenite manuscripts are those of the Hebrew Bible, which the Yemenite Jews call “Taj” (“crown”). The oldest texts dating from the ninth century, and each of them has a short Masoretic introduction, while many contain Arabic commentaries.

Yemenite Jews were acquainted with the works of Saadia Gaon, Rashi, Kimhi, Nahmanides, Yehudah ha Levy and Isaac Arama, besides producing a number of exegetes from among themselves. In the fourteenth century Nathanael ben Isaiah wrote an Arabic commentary on the Bible; in the second half of the fifteenth century Saadia ben David al-Adani was the author of a commentary on Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Abraham ben Solomon wrote on the Prophets.

Among the midrash collections from Yemen mention should be made of the Midrash ha-Gadol of David bar Amram al-’Adani. Between 1413 and 1430 the physician Yaḥya Zechariah b. Solomon wrote a compilation entitled “Midrash ha-Ḥefeẓ,” which included the Pentateuch, Lamentations, Book of Esther, and other sections of the Hebrew Bible. Between 1484 and 1493 David al-Lawani composed his “Midrash al-Wajiz al-Mughni.”

Among the Yemenite poets who wrote Hebrew and Arabic hymns modeled after the Spanish school, mention may be made of Yaḥya al-Dhahri and the members of the Al-Shabbezi family. A single non-religious work, inspired by Ḥariri, was written in 1573 by Zechariah ben Saadia (identical with the Yaḥya al-Dhahri mentioned above), under the title “Sefer ha-Musar.” The philosophical writers include: Saadia b. Jabeẓ and Saadia b. Mas’ud, both at the beginning of the fourteenth century; Ibn al-Ḥawas, the author of a treatise in the form of a dialogue written in rimed prose, and termed by its author the “Flower of Yemen”; Ḥasan al-Dhamari; and Joseph ha-Levi b. Jefes, who wrote the philosophical treatises “Ner Yisrael” (1420) and “Kitab al-Masaḥah.”

DNA testing: DNA testing between Yemenite Jews and various other of the world’s Jewish communities shows a common link, with most communities sharing similar genetic profiles. Furthermore, the Y-chromosome signatures of the Yemenite Jews are also similar to those of other Semitic populations. Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora.

One point in which Yemenite Jews appear to differ from Ashkenazi Jews and most Near Eastern Jewish communities is in the proportion of sub-Saharan African gene types which have entered their gene pools. One study found that some Arabic-speaking populations, Jordanians, Syrians, Iraqis, and Bedouins, have what appears to be substantial gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa, amounting to 10-15% of lineages within the past three millennia. In the case of Yemenites, the average is actually higher at 35%. Yemenite Jews, as a traditionally Arabic-speaking community of local Yemenite and Israelite ancestries, are included within the findings for Yemenites, though they average a quarter of the frequency of the non-Jewish Yemenite sample. In other Arabic-speaking populations not mentioned, the African gene types are rarely shared. Other Middle Eastern populations, particularly non-Arabic speakers, Turks, Persians, Kurds, Armenians, Azeris, and Georgians, have few or no such lineages.

A study performed by the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University found a possible genetic similarity between 11 Ethiopian Jews and 4 Yemenite Jews who took part in the testing. The differentiation statistic and genetic distances for the 11 Ethiopian Jews and 4 Yemenite Jews tested were quite low, among the smallest of comparisons that involved either of these populations. Ethiopian Jewish Y-Chromosomal haplotype are often present in Yemenite and other Jewish populations, but analysis of Y-Chromosomal haplotype frequencies does not indicate a close relationship between Ethiopian Jewish groups. It is possible that the 4 Yemenite Jews from this study may be descendants of reverse migrants of African origin, who crossed Ethiopia to Yemen. The result from this study suggests that gene flow between Ethiopia and Yemen as a possible explanation. The study also suggests that the gene flow between Ethiopian and Yemenite Jewish populations may not have been direct, but instead could have been between Jewish and non-Jewish populations of both regions.

Emigration of communities to Israel: There were two major centers of population for Jews in southern Arabia besides the Jews of Northern Yemen, one in Aden and the other in Hadramaut. The Jews of Aden lived in and around the city, and flourished during the British protectorate. The Jews of Hadramaut lived a much more isolated life, and the community was not known to the outside world until the early 1900s. In the early 20th century they had numbered about 50,000; they currently number only a few hundred individuals and reside largely in Sa’dah and Rada’a.

First wave of emigration: 1881 to 1914: Emigration from Yemen to Palestine began in 1881 and continued almost without interruption until 1914. It was during this time that about 10% of the Yemenite Jews left. Due to the changes in the Ottoman Empire citizens could move more freely and in 1869 travel was improved with the opening of the Suez Canal, which reduced the travel time from Yemen to Palestine. Certain Yemenite Jews interpreted these changes and the new developments in the “Holy Land” as heavenly signs that the time of redemption was near. By settling in Israel they would be a part in what they believed could precipitate the anticipated messianic era.

From 1881 to 1882 a few hundred Jews left Sanaa and several nearby settlements. This wave was followed by other Jews from central Yemen who continued to move into Palestine until 1914. The majority of these groups moved into Jerusalem and Jaffa. Before World War I there was another wave that began in 1906 and continued until 1914. Hundreds of Yemenite Jews made their way to Palestine and chose to settle in the agricultural settlements. It was after these movements that the World Zionist Organization sent Shmuel Yavne’eli to Yemen to encourage Jews to emigrate to Palestine. Yavne’eli reached Yemen at the beginning of 1911 and returned to Palestine in April 1912. Due to Yavne’eli’s efforts about 1,000 Jews left Yemen left central and southern Yemen with a several hundred more arriving before 1914

The second wave of emigration: 1920 to 1950: In 1922, the government of Yemen, under Imam Yahya reintroduced an ancient Islamic law entitled the “orphans decree”. The law dictated that, if a Jewish boy or girl under the age of twelve was orphaned, they were to be forcibly converted to Islam, their connection to their family and community was to be severed and they had to be handed over to a Muslim foster family. The rule was based on the law that the prophet Mohammed is “the father of the orphans,” and on the fact that the Jews in Yemen were considered “under protection” and the ruler was obligated to care for them.

A prominent example is Abdul Rahman al-Iryani, the President of the Yemen Arab Republic who was alleged to be of Jewish descent by Dorit Mizrahi, a writer in the Israeli ultra-Orthodox weekly Mishpaha. She claimed to be his niece due to him being her mother’s brother. According to her recollection of events, he was born Zekharia Hadad in 1910 to a Yemenite Jewish family in Ibb. He lost his parents in a major disease epidemic at the age of eight and together with his 5-year-old sister, was forcibly converted to Islam and put under the care of separate foster families. He was raised in the powerful al-Iryani family and adopted an Islamic name. al-Iryani would later serve as minister of religious endowments under northern Yemen’s first national government and became the only civilian to have led northern Yemen.

However, yemenionline, an online newspaper claimed to have conducted several interviews with several members of the al-Iryani family and residents of Iryan, and allege that this claim of Jewish descent is merely a “fantasy” started in 1967 by Haolam Hazeh, an Israeli tabloid. It states that Zekharia Haddad is in fact, Abdul Raheem al-Haddad, Al-Iryani’s foster brother and bodyguard who died in 1980.

The most part of both communities emigrated to Israel after the declaration of the state. The State of Israel in beginning of 1948 initiated Operation Magic Carpet and airlifted most of Yemen’s Jews to Israel.

In 1881, the French vice consulate in Yemen wrote to the leaders of the Alliance in France, that he read a book of the Arab historian Abu-Alfada, that the Jews of Yemen settled in the area in 1451 BCE.

In 1947, after the partition vote of the British Mandate of Palestine, Arab Muslim rioters, assisted by the local police force, engaged in a bloody pogrom in Aden that killed 82 Jews and destroyed hundreds of Jewish homes. Aden’s Jewish community was economically paralyzed, as most of the Jewish stores and businesses were destroyed. Early in 1948, the unfounded accusation of the ritual murder of two girls led to looting.

This increasingly perilous situation led to the emigration of virtually the entire Yemenite Jewish community between June 1949 and September 1950 in Operation Magic Carpet. During this period, over 50,000 Jews emigrated to Israel.

A smaller, continuous migration was allowed to continue into 1962, when a civil war put an abrupt halt to any further Jewish exodus.

According to an official statement by Alaska Airlines: When Alaska Airlines sent them on “Operation Magic Carpet” 50 years ago, Warren and Marian Metzger didn’t realize they were embarking on an adventure of a lifetime. Warren Metzker, a DC-4 captain, and Marian Metzker, a flight attendant, were part of what turned out to be one of the greatest feats in Alaska Airlines’ 67-year history: airlifting thousands of Yemenite Jews to the newly created nation of Israel. The logistics of it all made the task daunting. Fuel was hard to come by. Flight and maintenance crews had to be positioned through the Middle East. And the desert sand wreaked havoc on engines. It took a whole lot of resourcefulness the better part of 1949 to do it. But in the end, despite being shot at and even bombed upon, the mission was accomplished – and without a single loss of life. “One of the things that really got to me was when we were unloading a plane at Tel Aviv,” said Marian, who assisted Israeli nurses on a number of flights. “A little old lady came up to me and took the hem of my jacket and kissed it. She was giving me a blessing for getting them home. We were the wings of eagles.” For both Marian and Warren, the assignment came on the heels of flying the airline’s other great adventure of the late 1940s: the Berlin Airlift. “I had no idea what I was getting into, absolutely none,” remembered Warren, who retired in 1979 as Alaska’s chief pilot and vice president of flight operations. “It was pretty much seat-of-the-pants flying in those days. Navigation was by dead reckoning and eyesight. Planes were getting shot at. The airport in Tel Aviv was getting bombed all the time. We had to put extra fuel tanks in the planes so we had the range to avoid landing in Arab territory.”

Many of the Yemenite Jews were brought to Israel during the Operation Magic Carpet on a wave of Messianic expectation. Inevitably they found that the reality fell short of their dreams. On arrival they were placed in transit camps (ma’abarot) in which basic amenities were often lacking, where they often had to stay for years. They were also subjected to a deliberate process of secularization in order to fit them for modern Israeli society, and few if any succeeded in preserving their traditional Yemenite way of living. Many children unaccountably “disappeared” or were said to have died, and were later discovered to have been sold for adoption. More recently, however, there has been a revival in Yemenite Judaism, principally under the auspices of Rabbi Yosef Qafih, and many Israelis take an interest in it from an antiquarian and folkloristic point of view.

In Yemen itself, there exists today a small Jewish community in the town of Bayt Harash (2 km away from Raydah. They have a rabbi, a functioning synagogue and a mikvah. The also have a boys yeshiva and a girls seminary, funded by a Satmarer affiliated Hasidic organization of Monsey, NY.

A small Jewish enclave also exists in the town of Raydah, which lies approximately 45 mile north of Sana’a. The town hosts a yeshiva, also funded by a Satmar affiliated organization.

The Yemeni defense forces have gone to great lengths to try and convince the Jews to stay in their towns. These attempts, however, failed and the authorities were forced to provide financial aid for the Jews so they would be able to rent accommodation in safer areas.

In December 2008, 30 year old Rabbi Masha Ya’ish al-Nahari of Raydah was shot & killed by an Islamic extremist.

Virtually the entire Jewish population emigrated from Yemen between June 1949 and September 1950 in what was deemed Operation Magic Carpet. Most now live in Israel, with some others in the United States, and fewer elsewhere. Only a handful remain in Yemen, mostly elderly.

Operation Magic Carpet (Yemenites). In the course of the operation "Magic Carpet" (1949-1950), the entire community of Yemenite Jews (called Teimanim, about 49,000) immigrated to Israel. Most of them had never seen an airplane before, but they believed in the Biblical prophecy: according to the Book of Isaiah (40:31), God promised to return children of Israel to Zion "on wings of eagles".

Midrash Hagadol Manuscript

Yemenite Jew sounding the Shofar.

Yemenite Jewish Man

Elderly Jewish Man 1920

Yemenite Jewish Bride

Yemenite Jew in traditional vestments

Sephardic Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, known and respected among Yemenite Jews for the impact of his Epistle on the community at their time of need.

Map of Yemen Jewish Communities

Esther born Hadassah, is a queen of the Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus (traditionally identified with Artaxerxes II), and heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her. The name Esther comes from the Persian word “star”. Hadassah means “myrtle” in Hebrew and the name Esther is likely related to the Median word for myrtle, astra, and the Persian word setareh meaning star, the myrtle blossom resembles a twinkling star.

The Targum provides another Midrashic explanation: that she was as beautiful as the Evening Star (or Morning Star), which is astara in Greek. In the Talmud, Tractate Yoma (29a), Esther is compared to the “morning star”, and is considered the subject of Psalm chapter 22 because its introduction is a “song for the morning star.” Esther can also be understood to mean “hidden” in Hebrew, and her name is interpreted thus in Midrash, where it is said that Esther hid her nationality and lineage as Mordecai had advised. Because the methods and aims of God are believed to be similarly hidden, “The Book of Esther” in Hebrew can be understood as “The Book of Hiddenness,” representing G-d’s hiddenness in the story.

Esther was a woman of deep faith, courage and patriotism, ultimately willing to risk her life for her adoptive father, Mordecai, and the Jewish people. Scripture portrays her as a woman raised up as an instrument in the hand of God to avert the destruction of the Jewish people, and to afford them protection and forward their wealth and peace in their captivity. As a result of Esther’s intervention and influence, Mizrahi Jews lived in the Persian Empire for 2400 years thereafter. Esther’s husband Ahasuerus followed in the footsteps of Cyrus the Great, in showing mercy to the Jews of Persia: Cyrus had decreed an end to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews upon his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC.

Following is the story of Esther recorded as the Book of Esther;

CHAPTER ONE

1 And it came to pass in the days of Achashverosh, the same Achashverosh who ruled from Hodu to Cush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces.

2 In those days, when King Achashverosh sat on his royal throne, which was in Shushan the capital –

3 In the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his ministers and servants; the army of Persia and Media, the nobles and all the ministers of the provinces in his service.

4 For many days, one hundred and eighty days, he displayed the glorious wealth of his kingdom and the splendorous beauty of his majesty.

5 And when these days came to an end, the king made a seven-day feast in the courtyard of the king’s palace garden, for all the people in Shushan the capital, nobleman and commoner alike.

6 There were hangings of white, green and blue, held by cords of linen and purple wool to silver rods and marble pillars. There were divans of gold and silver on a floor of alabaster and marble [arranged in patterns of] rows and circles.

7 Drinks were served in golden vessels, vessels of assorted design, and the royal wine was in abundance as befitting the king.

8 The drinking was by the law, without force, for so had the king ordered all the stewards of his household-to comply with the will of each man.

9 Queen Vashti, too, made a feast for the women in the royal palace of King Achashveirosh.

10 On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was merry with wine, he ordered Mehuman, Bizzeta, Charvona, Bigta, Avagta, Zeitar and Charkas, the seven chamberlains who attended King Achashverosh,

11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king wearing the royal crown, to show her beauty to the nations and ministers, for she was indeed beautiful.

12 But Queen Vashti refused to appear by the king’s order brought by the chamberlains, and the king grew furious and his wrath seethed within him.

13 So the king conferred with the wise men, those knowledgeable of the times–for this was the king’s custom, to [bring such matters] before those who were versed in every law and statute.

14 Those closest to him were Carshina, Sheitar, Admata, Tarshish, Meress, Marsina and Memuchan. These were the seven ministers of Persia and Media, who had access to the king and ranked highest in the kingdom.

15 [He asked them:] “By law, what should be done with Queen Vashti for failing to obey the order of King Achashverosh, brought by the chamberlains?”

16 Memuchan declared before the king and the ministers: “It is not against the King alone that Queen Vashti has sinned, but against all the ministers and all the nations in all the provinces of King Achashverosh.

17 “For word of the queen’s deed will reach all the women and it will belittle their husbands in their eyes. For they will say: ‘King Achashverosh commanded that Queen Vashti be brought before him, yet she did not come!’

18 “This very day, the noblewomen of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s deed will repeat it to all the King’s nobles and there will be much disgrace and anger.

19 “If it please the King, let a royal edict be issued by him, and let it be written into the laws of Persia and Media and let it not be revoked, that Queen Vashti may never again appear before King Achashverosh, and let the King confer her royal title upon another woman who is better than she.

20 “And the King’s decree which he shall proclaim will be heard throughout his kingdom, for it is indeed great, and all the women will respect their husbands, nobleman and commoner alike.”

21 The idea pleased the king and the ministers, and the king did as Memuchan had advised.

22 He sent letters to all the king’s provinces–to each province in its script and to each nation in its language [saying] that every man shall be master in his home and that he speak the language of his nation.

CHAPTER TWO

1 After these events, when King Achashverosh’s wrath had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed upon her.

2 So the king’s attendants advised: “Let beautiful virgin girls be sought for the King.

3 “And let the King appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, and let them gather every beautiful virgin girl to Shushan the capital, to the harem, under the charge of Heigai, chamberlain of the King, custodian of the women, and let their cosmetics be provided.

4 “And let the girl who finds favor in the King’s eyes become queen in Vashti’s stead.” The plan pleased the king and he acted accordingly.

5 There was a Jewish man in Shushan the capital, whose name was Mordechai, son of Yair, son of Shim’iy, son of Kish, a Benjaminite,

6 Who had been exiled from Jerusalem with the exiles that had been exiled along with Jechoniah, King of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had sent into exile.

7 He raised his cousin Hadassah, also called Esther, for she had neither father nor mother. The girl was of beautiful form and beautiful visage, and when her father and mother died, Mordechai adopted her as his daughter.

8 Now when the king’s order and edict became known, and many girls were gathered to Shushan the capital under the charge of Heigai, Esther was taken to the palace under the charge of Heigai, custodian of the women.

9 The girl found favor in his eyes and won his kindness, so that he hurried to provide her with her cosmetics and meals, and the seven maids that were to be given her from the palace. He also transferred her and her maids to the best quarters in the harem.

10 [All the while] Esther did not divulge her race or ancestry, for Mordechai had instructed her not to tell.

11 And every day Mordechai would stroll in front of the harem courtyard to find out how Esther was faring and what would be done with her.

12 Now when each girl’s turn came to go to King Achashverosh, after undergoing the prescribed twelve-month care for women –for only then would their period of beauty-care be completed: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and women’s cosmetics–

13 With this the girl would appear before the king; she would be provided with whatever she requested to accompany her from the harem to the palace.

14 In the evening she would go [to the king], and in the morning she would return to the second harem, under the charge of Shaashgaz, the king’s chamberlain, custodian of the concubines. She would not go to the king again, unless the king desired her, whereupon she would be summoned by name.

15 And when the time came for Esther, daughter of Avichayil uncle of Mordechai, who had taken her as a daughter, to go to the king, she did not ask for a thing other than that which Heigai, the king’s chamberlain, custodian of the women, had advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her.

16 Esther was taken to King Achashverosh, to his palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tevet, in the seventh year of his reign.

17 And the king loved Esther more than all the women and she won his favor and kindness more than all the virgins; he placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in Vashti’s stead.

18 Then the king made a grand feast for all his ministers and servants, “The Feast of Esther.” He lowered [taxes] for the provinces and gave presents befitting the king.

19 And when the virgins were gathered a second time, Mordechai was sitting at the king’s gate.

20 Esther would [still] not divulge her ancestry or race, as Mordechai had instructed her. Indeed, Esther followed Mordechai’s instructions just as she had done while under his care.

21 In those days, while Mordechai sat at the king’s gate, Bigtan and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains from the threshold guards, became angry and planned to assassinate King Achashverosh.

22 The matter became known to Mordechai and he informed Queen Esther. Esther then informed the king of it in Mordechai’s name.

23 The matter was investigated and found [to be true] and the two were hanged on the gallows. It was then recorded in the Book of Chronicles before the king.

CHAPTER THREE

1 After these events, King Achashverosh promoted Haman, son of Hamdata, the Agagite and advanced him; he placed his seat above all his fellow ministers.

2 All the king’s servants at the king’s gate kneeled and bowed before Haman, for so had the king commanded concerning him. But Mordechai would not kneel or bow.

3 The king’s servants at the king’s gate said to Mordechai, “Why do you transgress the King’s command?”

4 And when they had said this to him day after day and he did not listen to them, they informed Haman to see if Mordechai’s words would endure, for he had told them that he was a Jew.

5 When Haman saw that Mordechai would not kneel or bow before him, Haman was filled with wrath.

6 But he thought it contemptible to kill only Mordechai, for they had informed him of Mordechai’s nationality. Haman sought to annihilate all the Jews, Mordechai’s people, throughout Achashverosh’s entire kingdom.

7 In the first month, which is the month of Nissan, in the twelfth year of King Achashverosh’s reign, a pur, which is a lot, was cast before Haman, for every day and every month, [and it fell] on the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

8 Haman said to King Achashverosh, “There is one nation, scattered and dispersed among the nations throughout the provinces of your kingdom, whose laws are unlike those of any other nation and who do not obey the laws of the King. It is not in the King’s interest to tolerate them.

9 “If it please the King, let [an edict] be issued for their destruction, and I will pay ten thousand silver talents to the functionaries, to be deposited in the King’s treasuries.”

10 The king removed his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, son of Hamdata, the Agagite, persecutor of the Jews.

11 The king said to Haman, “The money is yours to keep, and the nation is yours to do with as you please.”

12 The king’s scribes were then summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and all that Haman commanded to the king’s satraps and the governors of each province and to the nobles of each nation was written–to each province according to its script and each nation according to its language. It was written in King Achashverosh’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

13 Letters were sent with couriers to all the provinces of the king: to annihilate, murder and destroy all the Jews, young and old, children and women, on one day–the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar and to plunder their possessions.

14 Copies of the edict were to be proclaimed as law in every province, clearly to all the nations, so that they should be ready for that day.

15 The couriers hurried out with the order of the king and the law was proclaimed in Shushan the capital. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, and the city of Shushan was in turmoil.

CHAPTER FOUR

1 Mordechai knew all that had occurred, so Mordechai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ash. He went out into the city crying loudly and bitterly.

2 He went up until the king’s gate, for it is improper to enter the king’s gate wearing sackcloth.

3 And in every province, wherever the edict of the king and his law reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, crying and wailing; sackcloth and ash were spread out for the masses.

4 Esther’s maids and chamberlains came and told her about it and the queen was terrified. She sent garments with which to dress Mordechai so that he would remove his sackcloth from upon him, but he did not accept them.

5 Esther summoned Hatach, one of the king’s chamberlains whom he had placed in her service, and she commanded him to go to Mordechai to find out the meaning of this and what it was about.

6 Hatach went out to Mordechai, to the city square that was in front of the king’s gate.

7 And Mordechai told him about all that had happened to him, and about the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the right to destroy the Jews.

8 He also gave him a copy of the law that was proclaimed in Shushan calling for their annihilation, to show Esther and to tell her about it, and to instruct her to go to the king to beseech him and to plead with him on behalf of her nation.

9 Hatach went and relayed the words of Mordechai to Esther.

10 Esther told Hatach to relay to Mordechai:

11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes to the king and enters the inner courtyard without being summoned, his is but one verdict: execution; except for the person to whom the king extends his golden scepter–[only] he shall live. And I have not been summoned to come to the king for thirty days now.”

12 They relayed Esther’s words to Mordechai.

13 And Mordechai said to relay to Esther, “Do not think that you will escape [the fate of] all the Jews by being in the king’s palace.

14 “For if you will remain silent at this time, relief and salvation will come to the Jews from another source, and you and the house of your father will be lost. And who knows if it is not for just such a time that you reached this royal position.”

15 Esther said to relay to Mordechai:

16 “Go and gather all the Jews who are in Shushan and fast for my sake, do not eat and do not drink for three days, night and day. My maids and I shall also fast in the same way. Then I shall go to the king, though it is unlawful, and if I perish, I perish.”

17 Mordechai then left and did all that Esther had instructed him.

CHAPTER FIVE

1 On the third day, Esther donned [garments of] royalty and stood in the inner courtyard of the palace, facing the palace. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the palace facing the palace entrance.

2 When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard she found favor in his eyes. The king extended to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand and Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

3 The king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? [Even if it be] half the kingdom, it will be granted you.”

4 Esther said, “If it please the King, let the King and Haman come today to the feast that I have prepared for him.”

5 The king said, “Tell Haman to hurry and fulfill Esther’s bidding.” And the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared.

6 At the wine feast, the king said to Esther, “What is your plea? It will be granted you; what is your request? [Even if it be] half the kingdom it shall be fulfilled.”

7 So Esther replied and said, “My plea and my request:

8 “If I have found favor in the King’s eyes, and if it please the King to grant my plea and fulfill my request, let the King and Haman come today to the feast that I shall prepare for them, and tomorrow I shall fulfill the King’s bidding.”

9 That day Haman left happy and content. But when Haman saw Mordechai at the king’s gate and [Mordechai] neither rose nor trembled before him, Haman was filled with wrath against Mordechai.

10 Haman restrained himself and went to his house and sent for his friends and his wife Zeresh.

11 Haman told them of his glorious wealth and his many sons, and all about how the king had promoted and raised him above all the king’s ministers and servants.

12 Then Haman said: “In addition, along with the king, Queen Esther invited only me to the feast that she prepared. Tomorrow, too, I am invited to her [feast] along with the king.

13 “Yet all this is worthless to me whenever I see Mordechai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate!”

14 Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have gallows erected fifty cubits high, and tomorrow tell the king to have Mordechai hanged on it. Then you will be able to go in good spirits with the king to the feast.” Haman was pleased with the idea and erected the gallows.

CHAPTER SIX

1 That night, the king’s sleep was disturbed. He ordered that the Book of Records, the Chronicles, be brought, and they were read before the king.

2 It was found written that Mordechai had informed on Bigtan and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains from the threshold guards, who had planned to assassinate King Achashverosh.

3 The king asked, “What splendor and honor has been accorded to Mordechai for this?” “Nothing was done for him,” the king’s attendants replied.

4 “Who is in the courtyard?” asked the king. And just then Haman had come to the outer courtyard of the king’s chambers to tell the king to hang Mordechai on the gallows he had prepared for him.

5 “Haman is standing in the courtyard,” the king’s attendants answered him. “Let him come in,” said the king.

6 Haman entered, and the king said to him, “What should be done for a man whom the king wishes to honor?” Now Haman said to himself, “Who would the king wish to honor more than me?”

7 So Haman said to the king, “For a man whom the king wishes to honor,

8 “let them bring a royal garment that the king has worn, and a horse upon which the king has ridden, and upon whose head the royal crown has been placed.

9 “And let the garment and the horse be entrusted in the hands of one of the king’s noble ministers, and they shall dress the man whom the king wishes to honor and lead him on the horse through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘So is done for the man whom the king wishes to honor!’”

10 The king said to Haman, “Hurry! Take the garment and the horse just as you have said, and do just so for Mordechai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Do not leave out a thing from all that you suggested.”

11 So Haman took the garment and dressed Mordechai, and he led him through the city square and proclaimed before him: “So is done for the man whom the King wishes to honor!”

12 Then Mordechai returned to the king’s gate while Haman hurried to his house, miserable, his face covered.

13 Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends about all that had happened to him. And his wise men and his wife Zeresh told him, “If this Mordechai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail over him, for you will certainly fall before him.”

14 While they were still talking with him, the chamberlains of the king arrived, and they rushed to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had prepared.

CHAPTER SEVEN

1 The king and Haman came to drink with Queen Esther.

2 And again on the second day the king said to Esther during the wine feast, “What is your plea, Queen Esther? It will be granted you. What is your request? [Even if it be] half the kingdom it will be fulfilled.”

3 Queen Esther replied and said: “If I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it please the King, let my life be granted me by my plea, and the life of my people by my request.

4 “For my people and I have been sold to be annihilated, killed and destroyed! Had we been sold as slaves and maidservants I would have kept silent. But indeed the persecutor is not bothered by the King’s loss.”

5 And King Achashverosh spoke and said to Queen Esther, “Who is this, and which one is he, that has the audacity to do such a thing?”

6 “A man who is a persecutor and an enemy: this evil Haman!” Esther replied. And Haman shuddered in the presence of the king and the queen.

7 The king arose in wrath and left the wine feast [and went] to the palace garden, while Haman stood up to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king’s hostility towards him was irrevocable.

8 And the king returned from the palace garden to the wine-feast chamber, and Haman had fallen upon the divan upon which Esther was reclining. The king said, “Does he even intend to seduce the queen while I am in the palace!” As soon as these words left the king’s mouth the face of Haman was covered.

9 Then Charvonah, one of the chamberlains that attended the king, said, “In addition, there is the gallows that Haman erected for Mordechai, who spoke for the King’s good, standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high!” “Hang him upon it!” said the king.

10 And they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordechai and the king’s wrath abated.

CHAPTER EIGHT

1 On that day, King Achashverosh gave Queen Esther the estate of Haman, persecutor of the Jews. And Mordechai came before the king, for Esther had told [the king] how he was related to her.

2 And the king removed his signet ring which he had taken from Haman and gave it to Mordechai, and Esther put Mordechai in charge of Haman’s estate.

3 Esther again spoke before the king and fell before his feet and she cried and begged him to nullify the evil decree of Haman the Agagite and his plot that he had plotted against the Jews

4 The king extended the golden scepter to Esther and Esther rose and stood before the king.

5 She said, “If it please the King, and if I have found favor before him, and the idea is proper to the King, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let [an order] be issued ordering the withdrawal of the letters containing the plot of Haman, son of Hamdata, the Agagite, in which he ordered the destruction of the Jews throughout the King’s provinces.

6 “For how can I behold the calamity that will befall my people? And how can I behold the destruction of my race?”

7 King Achashverosh said to Queen Esther and Mordechai the Jew, “See, I have given Haman’s estate to Esther, and he himself was hanged on the gallows for raising his hand against the Jews.

8 “Now you can issue decrees concerning the Jews as you please, in the King’s name and sealed with the King’s signet ring. For an edict written in the King’s name and sealed with the King’s signet ring cannot be withdrawn.”

9 The king’s scribes were then summoned, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on its twenty-third day, and an edict was written according to all that Mordechai instructed the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the nobles of the provinces from Hodu to Cush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces to each province according to its script and to each nation according to its language, and to the Jews according to their script and language.

10 He wrote it in King Achashverosh’s name and sealed it with the king’s signet ring. He sent the letters by couriers on horseback, riding mules bred of mares from the king’s stables:

11 That the king had allowed the Jews of every city to gather and stand up for their lives; to annihilate, kill and destroy every army of any nation or province that might attack them, [including their] children and women, and to plunder their possessions,

12 on one day in all the provinces of King Achashveirosh, on the thirteenth of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.

13 Copies of this edict [were sent] to be proclaimed as law in every province, clearly to all the nations, so that the Jews would be ready for that day to take revenge upon their enemies.

14 The couriers, riding mules from the king’s stables, left urgently and hurriedly with the king’s edict, and the law was proclaimed in Shushan the capital.

15 And Mordechai left the king’s presence wearing a royal garment of blue and white, a large golden crown, and a shawl of fine linen and purple wool. And the city of Shushan celebrated and rejoiced.

16 For the Jews there was light and happiness, joy and prestige.

17 And in every province and city to which the king’s edict and law reached, there was happiness and joy for the Jews, a celebration and a holiday. Many of the gentiles converted to Judaism, for fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

CHAPTER NINE

1 On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, when the time for the carrying out of the king’s edict and law had arrived, on the day the enemies of the Jews had thought they would dominate them, everything was overturned: the Jews dominated their enemies.

2 The Jews gathered in their cities throughout the provinces of King Achashveirosh to attack those who sought to harm them. No man stood in their way, for fear of them had fallen upon all the nations.

3 And all the ministers of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and the king’s functionaries honored the Jews, for fear of Mordechai had fallen upon them.

4 For Mordechai was prominent in the king’s palace and his fame was spreading throughout all the provinces, for Mordechai was growing in power.

5 And the Jews struck at all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying, and they did with their enemies as they pleased.

6 In Shushan the capital the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.

7 And Parshandata, and Dalfon, and Aspata;

8 and Porata and Adalya and Aridata;

9 and Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vaizata,

10 –the ten sons of Haman, son of Hamdata, persecutor of the Jews, they killed; but they took none of the spoils.

11 That day, the number of the slain in Shushan the capital was relayed to the king.

12 The king said to Queen Esther, “In Shushan the capital, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the other provinces of the King? What is your plea? It will be granted you. What is your additional request? It will be fulfilled.”

13 Esther replied, “If it please the King, let the Jews of Shushan be allowed to do tomorrow what was lawful today, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.”

14 The king ordered this done, and the law was proclaimed in Shushan, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged.

15 So the Jews of Shushan gathered again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in Shushan, but took none of the spoils.

16 And the rest of the Jews of the king’s provinces gathered and stood up for their lives to relieve themselves of their enemies and killed seventy-five thousand of their foes, but took none of the spoils.

17 On the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and they rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

18 And the Jews of Shushan gathered on the thirteenth and fourteenth [of Adar], and rested on the fifteenth and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

19 Thus the prazi Jews, those who live in unwalled cities, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a holiday, a day of feasting, rejoicing and sending portions of food one to another.

20 Now Mordechai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews living throughout the provinces of King Achashveirosh, near and far

21 [instructing them] to obligate themselves to celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar,

22 like the days upon which the Jews were relieved of their enemies, and the month which had been transformed for them from one of sorrow to joy, from mourning to festivity–to make them days of feasting, rejoicing, sending food portions one to another and giving gifts to the poor.

23 And the Jews accepted [as an obligation] that which they had begun to observe, and that which Mordechai had written to them.

24 For Haman, son of Hamdata, the Agagite, persecutor of all the Jews, plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and he cast a pur, which is a lot, to shatter them and destroy them.

25 But when she came before the king, [the king] said–and ordered letters to be written to the effect–that [Haman's] evil plot against the Jews be returned upon his own head, and he and his sons were hanged upon the gallows.

26 For this did they call these days “Purim,” after the pur, because of all of the events of this epistle, [which explains] what happened to them and why they saw fit to [establish the holiday].

27 The Jews established and accepted upon themselves, and upon their descendants, and upon all who might convert to their faith, to annually celebrate these two days in the manner described [here], on their proper dates never to be abolished.

28 And these days are remembered and observed in every generation, by every family, in every province and every city. And these days of Purim will never pass from among the Jews, nor shall their memory depart from their descendants.

29 Queen Esther, daughter of Avichayil, and Mordechai the Jew, wrote about the enormity of all [the miracles], to establish [the holiday] with this second Purim epistle.

30 And he sent letters to all the Jews, to the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Achashveirosh’s kingdom, words of peace and truth,

31 [instructing them] to observe these days of Purim on their proper dates, in the manner established for them by Mordechai the Jew and Queen Esther, just as they had accepted upon themselves and upon their descendants the observance of the fasts and their lamentations.

32 And the word of Esther confirmed the observances of these Purim days, and [the story] was included in Scripture.

CHAPTER TEN

1 King Achashverosh levied a tax upon the mainland and the islands of the sea.

2 And the entire history of his power and strength, and the account of Mordechai’s greatness, whom the king had promoted, are recorded in the Book of Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia.

3 For Mordechai the Jew was second to King Achashverosh, a leader to the Jews, and loved by his many brethren. He sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace for all their descendants.

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To the Rabbis, Esther is one of the four most beautiful women ever created. She remained eternally young; when she married Ahasuerus she was at least forty years of age, or even, according to some, eighty years based of the numerical value of Hadassah, her Hebrew name. She is also counted among the prophetesses of Israel.

Given the great historical link between Persian and Jewish history, modern day Persian Jews are referred to as “Esther’s Children”. A building known as The Mausoleum of Esther and Mordechai is located in Hamedan.